sandwiches and flask of Chianti. Never was a meal more welcome. I
soon felt my strength returning and set off in half an hour on the
journey back to the plateau.

"Then my troubles began. You'll think the wine got into my head and
it may have done so; but at any rate I lost the path most
effectually and presently lost myself. I began to despair and had
very nearly given up any further attempt to return when, out of the
trees, blinked the white face of the precipice under Griante's crown
and I recognized the situation. Then I went slowly and silently
forward and kept a sharp lookout.

"But I returned too late. Once back again, a glance at the dummy
showed me that I had lost my chance. It had been handled. The trunk
was in one place, the grass head, with my cap upon it, lay in
another. One knew that no fox or other wild creature would have
disturbed it thus.

"Dead silence hung over the spot; and now, half fearing an ambush in
my turn, I waited an hour before emerging. Not a soul was there.
Redmayne had clearly come, discovered my escape and then departed
again. Even in that moment I considered what I should have done had
he confiscated my clothes! It would then have been necessary to
tramp to my hotel in the white shirt and scanty underclothing which
was all that remained to me. But now I donned my jacket and
knickerbockers, cap and stockings and then prepared to depart.

"There was a smell of earth in the air--a reek of upturned mould;
but what that may have been I cannot say. I soon started downhill
and, presently, striking a path to the north, entered the chestnut